Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Kinneret Council on Aging, a nonprofit agency that provides ongoing programs and services to residents of Kinneret Apartments, has announced the honorees for their 2021, virtual 8 over 80 #SaluteOurSeniors to be held on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. "This is our community's premiere event honoring older adults and we are truly inspired by the number of outstanding individuals, who continue to contribute to our community and promote the Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam," said Carol Feuerman, KCOA...
(JNS) - Israel's Deni Avdija recently moved from Israel to Washington, found an apartment, met with the media at a Washington Wizards press conference and ate his first meal at Chipotle Mexican Grill. "I really liked the idea of Chipotle. I like to eat healthy. And it was kind of healthy!" Avdija, the 19-year-old Maccabi Tel Aviv phenom, was taken No. 9 overall by the Wizards in the recent NBA Draft. The 6-foot-9 inch, 225-pound forward is excited to play in the NBA and understands what it...
(JNS) - The public design contest for the "Florida Stands with Israel" specialty license plate, sponsored by the Israeli-American Council, has ended with the winning concept by local artist Daniel Ackerman, a graphic designer from Boca Raton, Fla. More than 100 designs were submitted, ranging from school children's concepts in crayon to highly technical designs of professional artists. The Sunshine State is home to more than 120,000 Israeli Americans. Ackerman explains his design: "The concept...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Trailblazing change, Morocco on Sunday announced that its schools will soon begin teaching Jewish history and culture as part of the official curriculum—a first in the region and in the North African country, where Islam is the state religion. It follows King Mohammed VI of Morocco’s decision to normalize relations with the Jewish state in yet another historic peace deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and announced last week. The move has had “the impact of a tsunami,” Serge Berdugo, se...
The Jewish Pavilion and the Jewish Academy have partnered together for many years and love to bring such joy to the community. This year, Jewish Academy of Orlando student, 5th grader Lorelie, decided as her mitzvah project to make sure the residents in assisted living and nursing homes felt loved during this unusual season. With the help of fellow students, Lorelie made a bunch of handmade holiday cards for the seniors. The Jewish Pavilion was more than honored to deliver these cards and know...
Have you ever wondered how Jewish texts from hundreds of years ago can inform some of the big ethical questions of the 21st century? In January, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando will offer Jewish Medical Ethics, one of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning’s most popular courses. This 10-week Zoom course — which begins Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 — will focus on such topics as cloning, prenatal interventions and termination of pregnancy, assisted suicide, and access to health care. While this course may be of special inter...
For many of the clients who come to Jewish Family Services, the holidays can often be a stressful and dark time. This year is especially difficult as so many in our Central Florida community have lost their jobs, are struggling to pay bills, or have even lost a loved one to the coronavirus. But amidst the darkness, here at JFS Orlando we've seen a bright light appear this holiday season. Some members in our community have decided, instead of spending money on gifts for their family and friends,...
(MEMRI via JNS) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that by exiting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, the United States gave up its rights but not its obligations. In an interview with Iranian journalist Mehdi Nasiri that was uploaded to the Arman Media YouTube channel on Dec. 9, Zarif said, "America is still obligated to lift its sanctions, and to refrain from creating obstacles because it has remained a member of the United Nations since leaving the...
NEW YORK CITY — As the number of Israeli families suffering from financial hardship and related challenges increases dramatically amid the coronavirus pandemic, UJA-Federation of New York announced nearly $3.5 million in new emergency Covid-19 relief grants in Israel. UJA will award grants to several organizations that support the most at-risk Israelis, including children, the newly poor, and struggling small businesses. In addition, the grants will help strengthen Israel’s ability to respond to Covid-related challenges with enhanced lea...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — With Israel poised to begin rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations, a new poll indicates that a little more than a third of Israelis say they won’t take the shots. According to an Israel Hayom poll, 37 percent of respondents said they will not take the vaccine, while 19 percent would neither confirm nor deny they planned to get vaccinated. Forty-four percent of respondents said they planned to get the vaccine. The older the respondent, the more likely they were to say they planned to be inoculated. Among respondents 65 and...
For 72 years, U.S. presidents sought to achieve peace between Israel and the Arab world. For 72 years, they largely failed. What for so long eluded presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama seems to have come effortlessly to President Donald Trump. In the space of just four months, together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump has achieved four peace deals between Israel and Arab states—twice the number achieved by all his predecessors combined. Last Thursday, Trump announced Morocco has joined the United Arab Emirat...
In past years I have written about the dichotomy between Chanukah and Christmas in terms of their intersectionality and convergence in secular terms; even though not related at all in terms of religious significance and observance. This intersectionality is created by the fact both holidays fall very closely in the month of December and in some years actually overlap. This year the eight days of Chanukah, based on the Hebrew calendar, occurred from Thursday evening, Dec. 10th through Friday, Dec. 18th. While the Christmas season pretty much...
(JNS) — I have questions about the New York Times’ parenting article, “Saying Goodbye to Chanukah,” published on Dec. 4, 2020. The piece was written by children’s book author Sarah Prager, a self-described non-Jewish woman whose Jewish father and Catholic mother raised her Unitarian. Throughout her life, she has never observed any Jewish holidays. She recounts how she (like the rest of her extended family) has chosen not to continue her family’s holiday tradition of eating latkes, lighting a menorah on Chanukah, reciting Hebrew prayers (wh...
A Muslim-American extremist has been disinvited from a Jewish-organized civil rights panel, and Jewish liberals are denouncing his removal as a suppression of free speech. But the real outrage here is that he was invited in the first place. Salam Al-Marayati, longtime president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, was invited by a group called Jews United for Democracy to speak as part of its panel on “After Four Years of Division, Tension and Bigotry — Now What?” Yet Al-Marayati himself is a promoter of division, tension and bigotry. Bigot...
(JNS) Fifty-one years have passed since the establishment in Rabat, Morocco, of one of the most hostile organizations toward Israel ever. One of the more prestigious committees in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, formerly known as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, is the Jerusalem Committee. Morocco’s kings, the “defenders of Islam’s holy sites in Jerusalem,” have led this committee for decades. From Morocco’s standpoint, normalization of ties with Israel is not just a renewed embrace of the Moroccan Diaspora in Israel, b...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando is holding in-person minyans. Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m.,...
(JTA) — Thirty years after Roald Dahl’s death and months before the expected release of a new movie about his life, the family of the children’s author has apologized for his anti-Semitic comments. Dahl was openly anti-Semitic during his life, telling the New Statesman in 1983 about the Jews, “Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” Those comments and others have colored Dahl’s legacy, even as children continue to enjoy the stories he wrote during his 50-year publishing career, including “Charlie and the Chocolate F...
Ten years ago, two Palestinian Arabs lay in prey on a pristine hiking trail on the slopes of the Judean mountains outside Jerusalem. Unlike terrorists who blow up buses, cafes, or attack civilians on the street, these men waited for their victims to come to them, knowing that on the beautiful sunny Shabbat day, people would flock to this well-known area. Two women, good friends, happened upon the terrorists in hiding, and became their victims. They were bound and gagged. The terrorists plotted...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - An Israeli startup's groundbreaking innovation may provide a much-needed remedy to the shortage of ventilators and the overwhelming of staff in COVID-19 wards. "Yehonatan Medical, in collaboration with Professor Ori Efrati, director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Unit at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, devised a state-of-the-art, first-of-its-kind ventilation system that can treat between three and five patients simultaneously. That means more patients treated by...
(JTA) — Over 50,000 Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates since the recent normalization pact between Israel and the UAE, according to a report this week in The Washington Post. That number is the result of only two weeks of open commercial flights between the countries, which agreed to open the diplomatic and tourism floodgates in a historic agreement signed in August. Tens of thousands more were expected to visit during the Hanukkah holiday, according to the Post. The report also said that the Jewish community center in Dubai, the UA...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a candle-holder from the Hasmonean period in the City of David in Jerusalem. The 2,000-year-old lantern, which has been preserved in its entirety, was discovered during excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, led by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Ir David Foundation. Archaeologists were excavating the road that was used for pilgrimages in the days of the Second Temple about 2,000 years ago. The road is nearly 600 meters...
With restrictions for in-person visitations beginning to relax, the staff and volunteers at the Jewish Pavilion have been busy making arrangements to bring holiday cheer to the hundreds of seniors living in facilities around the greater Orlando area. Sharon Littman, a Jewish Pavilion volunteer, with the assistance of her daughter, Alyssa; sons, Jacob and Zachary; and husband, Adam, prepared over 300 Chanukah bags of goodies that were delivered to the residents during the week of Chanukah. While...
Thanks to TikTok ... (I'm too old to know about TikTok but anyway): The World Jewish Congress was pleased to hear from TikTok that it has removed anti-Semitic content shared by users after the WJC flagged such content for the social media company. The WJC has worked closely with TikTok to identify specific examples of harmful content and was informed that TikTok had removed 98 of 100 flagged videos and banned 9 of 12 users. TikTok has now followed YouTube and Facebook in banning Dieudonne...
AMSTERDAM (JTA) - After Gal Graber and Tal Goldman had a disappointing experience with a store-bought jachnun, the two Israelis living in Amsterdam set out to make the slow-cooked Yemenite bread on their own. "As with many Israelis, jachnun is connected in our minds with Saturday mornings, with quality time," Graber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "But the frozen ones for sale here are not great. So we decided to make our own." It turned out to be a prescient undertaking. Earlier this year,...
AMSTERDAM (JTA) - It was meant as an ode to one of the most courageous yet little-known rescue efforts of Jews during the Holocaust. But a week after its publication, a Dutch-language historical novel is at the heart of a controversy over whether the author twisted the historical record in ways that risk distorting public understanding of the genocide. Critics say "The Nursery," which is based on a daring rescue operation to smuggle hundreds of Jewish children out of Amsterdam and describes itse...
